Needled News: Marisa DiMattia's Tattoo Revue

Praise be! Salvation for all porn-lovin heathens is here—in the form of tattooed hipsters. It was only a matter of time: Evangelical Christianity meets Miami Ink, screaming out for its own reality show.

The highlight of the tattoo news this past week was a NY Mag interview entitled The Hipstervangelist. Turns out Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker—you know, the PTL ministers who bilked Christians in the name of the lord—had a son Jay. Jay lost Jesus after dad became someone's prison bitch and mom began to inspire drag queens everywhere. He later found Jesus in the capital of ironic retro, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where 80s teleministry scandals is the new indie chic.

As co-founder of Revolution, a church "for those who feel rejected by religion," Jay holds services in Pete's Candy Store bar. His mission is to show just how hip fundamentalists can be. His life and work is also the subject of a documentary series, One Punk, Under God, for the Sundance channel.

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While some may find this punk rock religious passage a passing fancy, like the Kanji tattoo, others find it much more dangerous. In the book Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement, reviewed this week in The Rocky Mountain News, author Lauren Sandler looks at how "a bright candy coating of secular cool (sweetens) the bitter pill of addictive orthodoxy." The review offers Sandler's cause for alarm:

Evangelical Christians are wooing American youth in astonishing numbers, courting them at skateparks and malls, sharing common interests in tattoos and rock music, and offering community and certainty in an uncertain world.

Sandler gives a sweeping view of what she dubs the Disciple Generation, these counterculture evangelists and the broken people, ages 15-35, that flock to them.

Typical of fundamentalism of any kind, it stresses the coming apocalypse, subjugates women and squashes competing ideas - and devotees make no secret of the fact that they are committed to imposing their extreme beliefs on others via institutions of the state.

In essence, her fear is that evangelicals will succeed in endangering secularism through rock-n-roll. She may be right. Just looking at this week's news items, you'll see that bad ass Jay Bakker made headlines while the ChristiaNet Poll finding body art blasphemous lingered unnoticed by the media on PR Web. Co-opting cool to sell a product, or a religion, is a marketing commandment. And aren't we all disciples to advertising?

Makes me wonder: Will the Old Testament be a NY Times best seller now that rapper Nelly has Moses tattooed on his arm?

But there is hope. To lead us out of fundie land and combat the forces of the hipsterevangelists is the Dark Lord himself, NY tattoo artist Paul Booth and his Last Rites army. Offering a media alternative to Bakker's bible thumping, Booth has teamed up with MTV Overdrive and created Paul Booth's Tattoo Theater. Tattoo Theater is a glimpse into his ominous studio and the world of fine art tattooing via video clips. I immediately felt Satan's smoldering embrace after watching the first online installation entitled Sweet Pain. While the sound quality may be a bit off, it's worth straining your ears to hear stories of Booth getting his head tattooed, a torture worse than a G.W. good vs. evil presidential address.

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Indeed, through Tattoo Theater we can find deliverance from the holy warriers who invade our coffee houses and troll our bars. At the very least, we'll be saved from bad tattoo art. It's time to testify!

Marisa_DiMattia is a lawyer and editor of Needled.com, a blog on tattoo art and culture.

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